From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [23.128.96.18]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 122BDC433F5 for ; Fri, 8 Apr 2022 08:15:08 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S231391AbiDHIRI (ORCPT ); Fri, 8 Apr 2022 04:17:08 -0400 Received: from lindbergh.monkeyblade.net ([23.128.96.19]:58680 "EHLO lindbergh.monkeyblade.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S231390AbiDHIRH (ORCPT ); Fri, 8 Apr 2022 04:17:07 -0400 Received: from smtp.hosts.co.uk (smtp.hosts.co.uk [85.233.160.19]) by lindbergh.monkeyblade.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 270FB62BE6 for ; Fri, 8 Apr 2022 01:15:04 -0700 (PDT) Received: from host-84-13-159-41.opaltelecom.net ([84.13.159.41] helo=[192.168.1.37]) by smtp.hosts.co.uk with esmtpa (Exim) (envelope-from ) id 1ncjlm-0001ab-4N; Fri, 08 Apr 2022 09:15:02 +0100 Message-ID: <5d6df8fa-eaea-4ead-e966-8efe60784409@iee.email> Date: Fri, 8 Apr 2022 09:15:01 +0100 MIME-Version: 1.0 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:91.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/91.7.0 Subject: Re: Make commit messages optional Content-Language: en-GB To: jurgen_gjoncari@icloud.com, git@vger.kernel.org References: <7ED89912-2E10-4356-9C61-14B90EC0719C@icloud.com> From: Philip Oakley In-Reply-To: <7ED89912-2E10-4356-9C61-14B90EC0719C@icloud.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Hi Jurgen On 08/04/2022 04:35, jurgen_gjoncari@icloud.com wrote: > I think that often commit messages are unnecessary. I propose that by default a user should be able to commit without a message. > > I don't think this would be a problem from the UX point of view, because a user could get a lot of information about a change, from the history of the GitHub repository, such as from the time of change, and seeing the diff. > > I think that making commit messages options wouldn't even be a problem for retro compatibility because the feature would remain still functional for those who would want to use it. Isn't this an ideal candidate for an alias that simply passes in the empty message? However, it's worth reviewing and doing a retrospective about commit messages and who they are there to inform. They (these supposedly informative messages) used to frustrate me many years ago. I already _knew_ what I was doing, and it was 'obvious', what even needed saying (so say nothing). The Git project's style has been informative in showing how to provide a well focussed concise message that should be understandable to others, to your future self, and help clarify one's current understanding of the problem at hand. Often the last point will mean one upgrades the code to meet the real need. -- Philip